Decibel sets the stage
Decibel says, "Any of you highfalutin mucky mucks out there got yer ears on? Been trying to reach Jazz but getting dead air so I've got to bounce my signal elsewhere." Andi Lassiter says, "Blaster? What's going on?" Saboteur Foxfire says, "That's not Blaster..." Andi Lassiter says, "Oh! Heh, um, oops. Sorry." Patchwork says, "What's going on?" Decibel says, "Blaster?? I'm insulted. Remind me to take you off my Christmas card list." Saboteur Foxfire says, "...You send Christmas cards?" Decibel says, "Doesn't everyone?" Saboteur Foxfire says, "Not those who don't celebrate Christmas!" Andi Lassiter says, "Christmas cards? Please tell me you're not killing trees for /paper/ cards." Decibel says, "Good point, Foxfire. What's up is I've got a bit of a situation here that concerns me a bit and well somebody should probably be in the loop about it." Saboteur Foxfire says, "Paper isn't just made from trees, Andi..." Decibel says, "And as for paper, that's not my thing. I'm all about the digital age." Sandstorm says, "What happen Decibel, someone catch ya snoopin' on them... oh wait, that's Red Alert." Saboteur Foxfire snickers. Patchwork says, "What's wrong, Decibel?" Decibel says, "Me snoop? Never happen. I also don't get caught. But that's not what's going down. Well it's something and...hold on." Decibel has encrypted this channel. Sandstorm says, "My my, must be important" Decibel says, "Ah much better, can't go saying too much on an open frequency. Not sure how long I can keep us clear but there is something off here in the mainframe. That's all I'll say over channel. I'm parked on the Pax until I figure this out though." Sandstorm says, "At least it's keeping you busy" Decibel says, "I'm always busy." Fortress Maximus has arrived. Decibel, despite being on bridge watch, is currently huddled over a comm station instead of kicking back in the command chair. All sorts of data is flashing by on the screen as he reads. Shaking his head he slams a fist down in disgust and leans back a bit before returning to the monitor. Not even noticing the arrival of Fortress Maximus and Foxfire the engineer is obviously upset about something as he opens a wrist panel to attempt a faster connection. Sandstorm has arrived. Sandstorm strides into the room, looking for excitement. Repugnus has arrived. Sandstorm trots lazily into the Command Center. Partially because he was curious as to what was dug up, and partially because... well, actually other than considering catching a shuttle to Femax and see if he can help with the wild jungle planet no one really knows about, there wasn't really much else of that. "Don't mind me, I just came to be nosey! It kinda comes with the recon shtick." Isn't Fortress Maximus supposed to be on his way back to the Steelhaven? Perhaps so, but when the commanding officer of the Autobots' intelligence division says there's something fishy with the Autobots' mainframe, even the big guy himself would have to delay his own schedule in order to oversee this. "Well, I had to ground our shuttle back to the Steelhaven for a few hours." The large blocky Headmaster leader asks as he walks over to the engineeer, "What's this about the mainframe being 'off', Decibel?" Foxfire trots along after Maximus, peering around the much larger Autobot's leg at Decibel. Aside from following the Headmaster, he tries to keep out of the way of the bigger mechs, and keeps quiet as well, just like a child listening to the grown-ups talk amongst themselves. Decibel looks up as he's addressed having had his focus elsewhere and then points at the screen. "This. This isn't right." He stops and runs a cable from his wrist to the terminal and plugs in. "See everytime certain files are accessed it lets certain people know. The who, the when, the where we get it all. But look here." A scetion on the screen flashes. "It's all blank. No log in, no request file. If I didn't know better I would say we've been hacked." Everyone would probably prefer that Repugnus was still in the cargo bay lifting heavy boxes, but alas, he's here instead. "Wonder what you guys screwed up this time," he snarks as he steps inside. Decibel fills everyone in on what that is, and Repugnus scowls. "Hrm. Okay. So somebody accessed a file, and then deleted any record of his accessing it. Well, if THE PERPETRATOR IS IN THIS ROOM--" He announces, looking about at all the gumbies at various stations. "This is your LAST CHANCE to turn yourself in before we find it you did it anyway and I go to work on you. Anyone?" The gumbies look at each other awkwardly, but say nothing. "No? Well, your funeral..." Sandstorm peers at the screen over Decibel's shoulder for a moment. Then turns his head to glare over his shoulder at the Monsterbot when he starts making a ruckus. "Dude, chill. If it was someone here we wouldn't be in the dark over who it was, duuh." Fortress Maximus ventilates a bit of air in irritation, somehow Repugnus just has a way of driving him crazy, good thing he has a little squishy man in his head to try to calm him down, "Repugnus, you're on the command deck of the Orion Pax. Stop freaking out the bridge crew." He then leans forward to look over the terminal that Decibel had plugged into, examining the lack of information being displayed before looking over to the Intel CO, "Which files were accessed, and what methods did they use to keep up in the dark for so long?" The large Headmaster leader pauses for a moment before looking over to Sandstorm and Foxfire, "Has Jazz or Mirage mentioned any increased activity from Decepticon DCI?" Foxfire raises an optic ridge at Repugnus. "You've been reading cliche mystery novels, haven't you?" He looks up at Maximus and shakes his head. "No, they haven't said anything to me, at least." Sandstorm, being use to putting up with surly unruly types in his -own team-, goes back to mostly ignoring Repugnus and turns back to the other Autobots with a shrug. "Mirage's been busy helping you guys on Femax, and Jazz is probably on the down-low after the last time he cheezed them off again." Decibel doesn't move at all, in fact he looks like he's in a trance, but a screen next to Repugnus flickers to life displaying a virtual Decibel who shakes his head. Coming through the speakers he replies, "No it was certainly not somebody aboard the Pax. Good as these fellows are this is beyond their skills." Suddenly the main view screen flashes showing folders and sub folders that were accessed. "Alot was looked at, Maximus. Or at least somebody wanted us to think that. Most of these files are garbage, old data mostly. But these here are up to date records." The screen stops as the personel files flash. "somebody has been accessing these. Restricted to command only data records." Disconnecting from the terminal Decibel pivots to view the group. "Whoever did this was good. These can only be unlocked from inside a secure facility. You can't even remote access this stuff. You can see the main folder here but the good stuff isn't on the network. This was either an inside job or our security is really slacking." Repugnus shrugs, leaning up against a wall. "Hey, you never know, Sandstorm. Traitors *abound.* I should know, having taken apart a lot of them." And despite Maximus's warning, Repugnus gives the bridge crew a rather meaningful glare. The crew, in turn, tries to avoid eye contact with him. "Eh, I've been reading lots of things," he tells Foxfire. Foxfire is suddenly reminded of Cliffjumper, for some reason. He wonders why. Sandstorm folds his hands behind his cowling and stares off thoughtfully for a moment. "The last -known- incursion of Decepticons on the Pax was during the whole side swap fiasco, but that was months ago. You'd think you tech guys would of noticed something during the repairs." He looks back down at the screen again as he lowers his arms. "So it can't be too old." "Then it really does sound like we've been caught with our aft platings down." Fortress Maximus comments grimly in response to Foxfire and Sandstorm's replies. He then crosses his arms, pausing as he enters deep thinking. Weighing the decisions against each other. Finally he looks up at Decibel, "This isn't doesn't sound like any typical sort of electronic espionage that I've ever heard about. However the fact is that our mainframe -has- been compromised and since you were able to discover this, I want you to track down this trespasser. I also want whatever loopholes that allowed this sort of entry to be patched up once you've found whoever it is that has been fooling around in our systems." Decibel nods towards Sandstorm as he rocks back in the chair a bit and smirks a bit as Repugnus has the bridge crew wondering if he's going to put a hole through the main viewscreen. "I would be less worried about the Pax and more about Metroplex and the Ark. These files have been copied, and you can't do that from here. Hell Rodimus can't do that from here, he would have to be at his desk or another secure terminal on Earth." Falling quiet he listens as Fortress Maximus starts talking nodding here and there. When he done Decibel motions to make sure he has everyones attention, "Who ever did this and whatever they found out I can't be sure just yet. But I do know one thing that's troubling me, the files accessed. He copied us, the entire intel division, or what he could snag. I'll see if I can find out the exact details of what was retrieved but stay extra cautious out there. And do try to keep this quiet, the less they know we know the better off we'll be." Repugnus gives another shrug. "I don't care if they know about me. If they came after me, hell, that just spares me the trouble of tracking them down. Well, that is, if they copied the intel division for what I think they copied it for. Namely, building up a hit list. They did that before, right? Went after intel dudes?" Decibel gives Repugnus an unsure look, "It's really no secret who we are. I mean we've been at this long enough for them to already know most of us by name. I can't see how having a list of names would matter much. There has to be something we're not seeing. " Sandstorm hmms. "The lists could be, what do the humans call it... red herring? Yeah... and attempt at misleading whoever discovered them. Yer probably right that someone's really after something deeper and left a few layers behind to try and keep it covered." Fortress Maximus listens to what Decibel is saying and nods in agreement, "We'll keep the lid tight on this one, Decibel." He then looks around at the bridge crew and the other Autobots, particularly Repugnus cause you know... it's Repugnus! "I do not like the idea of keeping ourselves exposed for too long. Be quick, there's a lot at stake here." The Headmaster leader looks over to Repugnus as the Monsterbot makes his own hypothesis and strangely it does makes sense, "They could discover our list of insiders though. If they get executed, we'll be hurting for information that we've been taking for granted." Foxfire lowers his ears as a small whimper escapes his vocalizer, then he forces himself to brighten, and says cheerfully, "Don't worry! Us in intel can take care of ourselves." Except for that time he was kidnapped. Decibel can only agree with what has been said and nods accordingly, "We should be safe there. Certain, shall we call them assets aren't on file as such. Can never be to safe on somethings." shaking his head he sighs, "I'm starting to sound as bad as Red Alert here." With a grin he gives Foxfire the thumbs up, "Don't let the guys in military ops know that, we'll make them look bad." A smirk crosses Foxfire's muzzle, and he winks at Decibel. "My jaws are sealed." Sandstorm laughs a bit at the last joke, and gives Decibel a slap on the shoulder. "Hah! No one can be worse than Red Alert!" Repugnus rubs his pointy chin. "Hrm, maybe they're after..." He doesn't say what he's thinking, though. Could be nothing, and, well, how much does he like these guys, anyway? The Orion Pax's internal PA system pings softly for a moment before announcing, "Shuttle A4 bound for the Steelhaven is ready for departure. Shuttle A4 bound for the Steelhaven. Boarding dock 2." Fortress Maximus looks up in response to hearing the PA system announcement, "That'll have to be it for now. I trust you to handle this properly, Decibel. Be quick, lives may depend on this. Let Ultra Magnus know if you need anything else, I may drop out of communications reach over the next few days with Femax on my hands." Repugnus grins evilly as he stops leaning on the wall. "And let me know if someone needs to be "taken care of" discretely," he adds with a smirk. "Limited time offer, though, and all that." Decibel nods as people begin to depart. Taking a few momwnts to gather his thoughts he turns back to the terminal and gets to work. He has a lot of data to sort through and little time to do it. With no way of knowing if this was a one shot deal or a continual breech he dives right in. Sandstorm perks up at the intercom, and turns to shout after Maximus "If ya need any more guys to check the jungle out down there, let me know Max. I could use some new terrain to tromp about for fun." The way he says 'fun' makes it hard to tell if he's serious, or being sarcastic about it since it's likely not to be very 'fun' with Decepticons involved... then again, he IS a Wrecker... Fortress Maximus begins heading out the towards the nearby elevator doors, hearing Sandstorm, he turns around briefly to reply, "We'll take any and all personnels, pass the message on to the rest of the Wreckers. I know they got their plates full too but the sooner we pull the Decepticons off of Femax, the sooner we can finish up other things." That said, the Headmaster leader steps into the elevator and disappears out of sight.